Striking watches pre-selected for the 2015 GPHG. Clockwise from top left: A. Lange & Söhne Zeitwerk Minute Repeater, Akrivia Tourbillon Chiming Jump Hour, Girard-Perregaux Minute Repeater Tourbillon with Gold Bridges, Hublot Big Bang Alarm Repeater, Franc Vila Inaccessible Tourbillon Minute Repeater and Christophe Claret Allegro

Quill & Pad’s Predictions For The Striking Category Of The 2015 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève

Welcome to the 2015 edition of Quill & Pad’s early Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) predictions in which we pick our favorites and explain why. The six pre-selected finalists in the Striking category are the A. Lange & Söhne Zeitwerk Minute Repeater, Akrivia Tourbillon Chiming Jump Hour, Christophe Claret Allegro, Franc Vila Inaccessible Tourbillon Minute Repeater, Girard-Perregaux Minute Repeater Tourbillon with Gold Bridges, and the Hublot Big Bang Alarm Repeater.

Tourbillon watches pre-selected for the 2015 GPHG. Clockwise from top left: Antoine Preziuso Tourbillon of Tourbillons, Blancpain L-evolution C, Tourbillon Carrousel, Bovet 1822 Braveheart, MB&F Horological Machine N°6, Ulysse Nardin Ulysse Anchor Tourbillon and Greubel Forsey Tourbillon 24 Secondes Vision

Complete List And Photos Of All Pre-Selected Watches In The 2015 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève

The Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) has just published the list of 2015’s pre-selected watches in the run-up to the big red carpet event in Geneva on October 29. The pre-selected watches will go on a world tour that includes stops in Hong Kong, Seoul, Dubai, Geneva, and London in October and November. But enough preamble, let’s have a look at the watches that are now in serious contention to take home big prizes this year.

Girard-Perregaux Minute Repeater Tourbillon with Gold Bridges. You can see the two hammers at 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock

Girard-Perregaux Minute Repeater Tourbillon With Gold Bridges

The Girard-Perregaux Minute Repeater Tourbillon with Gold Bridges includes an extraordinary new version of the brand’s typical tourbillon and a chiming function – which is the star of the show here. The mechanical beauty of the watch’s skeletonized dial is dominated by three elements: the smaller bridge supporting the tourbillon, the larger bridge extending across the dial between 3 and 9 o’clock, and the repeater hammers at 12 o’clock. The shape of the hammers, which rest on jewels acting as ball bearings to reduce friction, was inspired by the first golden bridges registered in 1884.

Ulysse Nardin Marine Chronometer on Hartmut Kraft's wrist

Got A Minute? Hartmut Kraft, CEO Kering North America Luxury Watch Division: Ulysse Nardin, JeanRichard, And Girard-Perregaux

On May 1, 2015, Hartmut Kraft took over as the brand-new president and CEO of Kering North America, a position that includes leading three very well established brands, Ulysse Nardin, JeanRichard, and Girard-Perregaux in the North American markets. With his unbroken enthusiasm for watches, he is not “just” another executive in the watch industry, but rather a true watch enthusiast with genuine respectful admiration for horology. Read on to hear what he has discovered in his first days at Kering.

Dial close up of the Greubel Forsey Tourbillon 24 Secondes Contemporain in red gold

Give Me Five! Tourbillons From Baselworld 2014 Part 3

This is the last in our three-part series on tourbillons from Baselworld 2014. It includes fantastic timepieces from Blancpain, Greubel Forsey, Girard-Perregaux, Hautlence and Vianney Halter I have stretched the criteria a little here: while I saw the Greubel Forsey and Vianney Halter watches during Baselworld, neither of them was actually exhibiting at the fair.

Close up of the Girard-Perregaux Tri-Axial Tourbillon

The Mechanism That Sparked A Passion: Thank Heavens For The Girard-Perregaux Tri-Axial Tourbillon

Today I don’t want to talk about one specific watch (though the Girard-Perregaux Tri-Axial Tourbillon gets special attention). Instead I want to discuss a whole class of mechanisms that made me cross the line from watch fan to so-called “watch idiot savant” (affectionately abbreviated as WIS): the multi-axis tourbillon.

Girard-Perregaux Neo Tourbillon

Girard-Perregaux Presents Neo-Tourbillon with Three Bridges

At Baselworld, Girard-Perregaux presented the Neo-Tourbillon with Three Bridges, a relatively profound re-issue of an old favorite. While it retains the original codes and architecture of Constant Girard’s oeuvre, the major changes that have occurred – but which are not so obvious when taken individually – have to do with the shape of the bridges, the crystal, and the completely redesigned caliber.

Girard-Perragaux Constant Escapement spring

7 Reasons The Girard-Perregaux Constant Escapement Is Fit For Starfleet

Exploration, diplomacy, and research; these are the core values of Starfleet. Starfleet, to the uninitiated, is the deep-space exploratory organization around which the fictional Star Trek universe revolves. Basically the space-nerds of the future.